"New" Intellivision controller concept

Since the "new" Intellivision is allegedly coming somewhere in the future, I've decided to try and make a concept art for the new controller. Please note that this is not official and shouldn't be mistaken for an official thing. I've simply did this to have fun.

The controller has a keypad, 5 face buttons, 6 triggers, start/select buttons two analog sticks and a d-pad. The "i" button is supposed to be a "home" button, i obviously standing for Intellivision. The gamepad has a whooping 28 buttons. The keypad is there to provide a way to easily emulate old Intellivision games as well as to be used in new ones where some kind of numeric input is needed. This way, the controller bridges the way between old and new and provides a cool way to handle games on the system (if it ever comes out).

Obviously it's just me having fun and actual controller might not look like that, if/when the system comes out, though I'd really would like that. To that end, I release this concept on CC0 license so any controller manufacturer interested in using this is free to do so without paying me royalties (though I'd like to get one as a gift if somebody decides to make an actual controller based on my design, but it's not mandatory).

I'd go w/ only two shoulder buttons on the front face (I think you called them triggers). I know I'd always be fatfingering and hitting the middle one way too often. Or are you envisioning having three fingers on the front? Unsure how that feels ergonomically. Two triggers on each side would perfectly map to the original controller's four action keys, and could operate independently for new games and top ones could be slaved together in 'retro' mode.

I wonder if 'dual disc' would be better, so right-handed and left-handed "thumbers" would have the same setup - nobody wants to make 'left-handed' and 'right-handed' controllers. Two of my kids are left-handed, so that always is a thing in our household.

I'd tweak the aspect ratio of the 12-key keypad area to be more like the original.

This is a nice concept controller. I think that reducing the number of buttons would make it less intimidating and help make it more approachable for the non-gamers.

You're facing the challenge of not knowing what the general interaction with the console itself will be, so your design is covering everything!

A new Intellivision controller should work well with keypad action games like Baseball, NBA Basketball, Boxing, Bomb Squad. A compact 3x4 keypad might work. A smaller disc might work. And alot of us are right-handed/thumb disc users.

The way I see it, is that you'd have two fingers on the trigger area, index and middle, one would be on the back trigger, other on the front. When you'd want to press middle one, you'd just move one of the fingers to it. Also, ideally there would be three versions of the controller manufactured, with the difference being the size so people with big hands wouldn't have to squeeze and contort them into weird shapes and people with really small hands could easily play without stretching their fingers. And of course, the third type is a controler that is between those extremes.

I don't think anybody ever said that. As a matter of fact, some early games already took the concept of double controls, like Robotron and Battle Zone. People have two hands, so it's natural for some games to employ two sticks.

I think that rather than cramming an all-in-one jack-of-all-trades controller into this hybrid machine, its best bet for Intellivision Entertainment would be to offer an Intellivision-like hand-controller for the classic games, and a modern-ish controller for the newer ones. Once you put the keypad in (which the classic games require), you take away too much real-estate.

Too many buttons. Looks cluttered and other than the original having a keypad, why the need for 6 triggers and a 5th button in the center? Also why have the start select buttons? Just have the keypad function for that.

I think it depends on the kind of interpolation. If it's linear, it may be choppy and a bit unresponsive. But if it's smoothed out (not sure what kind of interpolation it is, but the one used in Bezier curves), then it could be good.

Too many buttons. Looks cluttered and other than the original having a keypad, why the need for 6 triggers and a 5th button in the center?

Because no one ever did it and I think it would work quite well, the only reason PS controller has only 4 face buttons is because it was heavily inspired by SNES controller (Playstation being originally a SNES add-on and all) and the only reason Xbox controller has 4 face buttons is because it was inspired by the Playstation DualShock controller.

5 buttons actually wouldnt work very well at all. Lets explain it with the PlayStation Pad in mind. In fact there are four buttons, gut most players use them as "rows". In pre-analog-stick racing games it is very obvious what I am talking about. You press the X button with the middle of the thumb, while the top end of your thumb is slightly lifted up, ready to brake if its time to do so. A 5th button would ruin the layout and you would press it by accident all the time.

So no, the 4-button system is definitely not just because of the SNES controller. It just is proven to be good.

@DZ-Jay

I think that rather than cramming an all-in-one jack-of-all-trades controller into this hybrid machine, its best bet for Intellivision Entertainment would be to offer an Intellivision-like hand-controller for the classic games, and a modern-ish controller for the newer ones.

Or the ultimate hybrid: The arcade stick Its impossible to do that, because it would be freakin expensive, but if you look at Grips Arcade Stick it works very well with classic and modern games. And lets face the truth: The new console wont be anywhere close to be a current gen console, so I dont expect AAA games for it. Just look at the new Atari VCS. And the new Intellivision has a much smaller fanbase, so I do not expect anything to be honest.

Or the ultimate hybrid: The arcade stick Its impossible to do that, because it would be freakin expensive, but if you look at Grips Arcade Stick it works very well with classic and modern games. And lets face the truth: The new console wont be anywhere close to be a current gen console, so I dont expect AAA games for it. Just look at the new Atari VCS. And the new Intellivision has a much smaller fanbase, so I do not expect anything to be honest.

Oh, yes, that's an alternative. Although extremely cool, I think it may be overkill for such a console. I think I would prefer having dedicated controls for each kind of game. If I'm playing classic games, I do not wish to have a million and one buttons which are just taking space and getting in the way (and perhaps taking up the best and more ergonomic locations). And likewise, if I am play modern games, I really do not wish to have that keypad in my face all the time.

In my opinion, there is a reason why consoles haven't evolved with large "table-top" control panels like arcades: because a light, ergonomic hand-controller is much more comfortable and intuitive to use while sitting on your comfy couch playing video games.

i have such a beefy ps1 controller which will use up half of your desk (i fished it out of the garbage).

but to be honest i can't use it.

yeah, i had something in mind with it, it would suit an a self made arcade cabinet.

instead of thousend words:

i hope you can catch the idea, it should be good to hold in one hand, the hand shouldn't be angled 90°, like you hold your hand naturally without using any force.

that's why i moved the action buttons to the bottom, i imagine a sort of musical keyboard keys, quite long with the pivot on the "wrong" side, you might feel it's wrong but i experimented a little, close to your finger tips, this will need a minimum force to press them.

this will be a right handed controller so we would need a mirrored design for the lefties.

(while this varies some right handed will feel comfortable with the left handed and vice versa)

the lever will make the action buttons very easy to press so they need a clear pressure point, something you can rest on without to press them.

the length i imagined this large because we haven't all the same size of fingers.

that's also why the pivot is "wrong" a shorter finger will have a longer lever due to that.

in my first drawing i made the numpad following the curve, but this will be a bit expensive to made i guess, on the other hand the numpad would be better to reach if it would follow the range of the thumb.

i'm aware this will be a intellivision/colecovision only design, but a hybrid isn't a really good option and most will use for recent games what they will feel comfartable with, i.e. a dual stick.

less is more in this case (in any case).

from the side it will be probably somewhat thicker on the top end

but one would have to hew it out of a wooden block to see what is best to hold, because the thickness could be as well better vice versa, i'm not sure which is best.

the occasional unwanted pressing of the action buttons, especially when you use the numpad, makes some problems, but in general it would be crampfree in this way.

if it should be a disc or a analog stick this i can't decide i'm quite comfortable with the disc, personally i stand to the disc. that is i.e. because auto racing (and similar) isn't good to play with a stick, at least not to me.